Publications

December 2004 (Revised May 2005)
Case

Nestle: Sustainable Agriculture Initiative

By: Forest L. Reinhardt

Swiss food giant Nestle attempts to improve the performance of its suppliers of agricultural commodities to raise quality, lower costs, and contribute to sustainable development. Its initiatives focus first on coffee, cocoa, and milk. Nestle managers assert that the... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Social Issues; Business and Community Relations; Corporate Strategy; Agribusiness; Supply Chain Management; Marketing Strategy; Value Creation; Food and Beverage Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

01 Mar 2006
News

The Real Conflict

competing operations, driving employees toward public welfare systems, and creating urban sprawl. The savings to Wal-Mart customers appears large in relation to the surplus that it passes on to its... View Details

Keywords: Pankaj Ghemawat; Ken A. Mark; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Retail Trade

April 2002 (Revised February 2003)
Background Note

An Economic Framework for Assessing Development Impact

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Frank J. Lysy and Carrie Ferman

Discusses the differences between private and social returns and describes an economic framework for assessing a project's social return [known as the economic rate of return (ERR)]. The framework begins by analyzing the impact of a new project on private financiers... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Microeconomics; Investment Return; Framework; Projects; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Valuation

August 2023
Teaching Note

Kunshan, Incorporated: The Making of China’s Richest Town

By: William C. Kirby and Noah B. Truwit

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 313-103. The case is designed to give the students an understanding of the local Chinese entrepreneurial state and how foreign and Chinese firms have worked with it to create China’s richest small city. The major themes are—local state... View Details

Keywords: Higher Education; Entrepreneurship; Economic Growth; Economic Systems; Business and Government Relations; Development Economics; China

28 May 2012
Research & Ideas

A Pragmatic Alternative for Creating a Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy

Associates. A social responsibility strategy should fulfill two goals: create a positive social impact, and enhance the company's brand, reputation, employee morale, and/or its bottom line, Rangan says. "But it does not have to be totally... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

June 2021 (Revised October 2021)
Supplement

CFM International (B): LEAPing Into the Future

By: Ranjay Gulati, Yves Doz and Kerry Herman

By 2017, after a long and highly successful run, the joint venture CFM’s and its parent firms’ leadership faces new challenges and must once again reconsider their commitment to the JV. CFM’s engines have come to dominate the narrow body aircraft market, but technology... View Details

Keywords: Joint Ventures; Partners and Partnerships; Competitive Strategy; Decision Making; Technological Innovation; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Manufacturing Industry

September 2006 (Revised November 2008)
Case

Supergrid

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

Supergrid is a mammoth wind-power development scheme for Europe, recently proposed by Airtricity. This firm, founded in 1997, is a fast-growing power-development company focused on wind. Already having built about 600 megawatts of wind turbines in Scotland and Ireland,... View Details

Keywords: Energy Generation; Renewable Energy; Entrepreneurship; Performance Capacity; Business and Government Relations; Environmental Sustainability; Energy Industry; Europe; United States

March 2004 (Revised August 2004)
Case

Restricting Foods of Minimal Nutritional Value in Texas Public Schools

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Hal Hogan

The Commission of Agriculture in Texas wants to improve the nutritional quality of the school lunch program to help fight obesity in students. It needs the cooperation of the soft drink industry to change their products and the manner in which they provide financial... View Details

Keywords: Government and Politics; Business and Government Relations; Nutrition; Food; Quality; Education; Education Industry

October 1992 (Revised August 1994)
Case

Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk

By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Edward Prewitt

Allied-Signal, Inc., one of the world's oldest chemical companies and today a diversified conglomerate, is liable for clean-up costs of old hazardous waste sites. These costs are substantial: reserves grew to nearly $500 million in 1991. Attempting to avoid further... View Details

Keywords: Wastes and Waste Processing; Environmental Sustainability; Programs; Cost Management; Policy; Government Legislation; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Governance Compliance; Legal Liability; Chemical Industry; United States; Europe

February 2011
Background Note

GUIDESlines: Benchmark Values for the GUIDES Framework

By: Matthew C. Weinzierl, Jacob Kuipers and Jonathan Schlefer

GUIDESlines provides benchmark values of the key economic indicators identified in the GUIDES framework for both developed countries (the OECD) and fast-growing emerging markets (the BRINCS countries). View Details

Keywords: Economics; Business Cycles; Macroeconomics; Framework; Business and Government Relations

August 2007 (Revised May 2008)
Case

Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged)

After Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Public School System is faced with rebuilding from the ground up. The challenge is enormous, as is the opportunity to remake the lowest-performing public school system in Louisiana and one of the lowest-performing in the nation.... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Transformation; Entrepreneurship; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Natural Disasters; Conflict and Resolution; Education Industry; New Orleans

04 Oct 2004
Research & Ideas

Start to Measure Your E-commerce Success

"The study of e-commerce has unfolded in much the same way that e-commerce thrust itself on the business world—with a great deal of overstatement," says Marc J. Epstein, Visiting Professor and Wyss... View Details

Keywords: by Marc J. Epstein

Forthcoming
Article

The Institutional Sources of Economic Transformation: Explaining Variation in Energy Transitions

By: Jared Finnegan, Phillip Lipscy, Jonas Meckling and Florence Metz

Why are some governments more effective in promoting economic change than others? We develop a theory of the institutional sources of economic transformation. Institutions can facilitate transformation through two central mechanisms: insulation and compensation.... View Details

Keywords: Policy; Business and Government Relations; Supply and Industry; Demand and Consumers; Transformation; Economic Systems; Climate Change

16 Jul 2024
Op-Ed

Corporate Boards Are Failing in Their No. 1 Duty

GE’s transition from Jack Welch to Jeff Immelt. In 20 years at the helm, Welch had grown shareholder value from $14 billion to $400 billion and Fortune had named him “Manager of the Century.” Immelt,... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

April 2009
Case

Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community

By: Stacey M. Childress and Geoff Eckman Marietta

Invest Early was an early childhood development partnership in rural northern Minnesota between 14 different organizations, which worked together through an advisory board, governing board, and leadership team in order to deliver coordinated early childhood services to... View Details

Keywords: Early Childhood Education; Rural Scope; Management Teams; Managerial Roles; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business and Community Relations; Partners and Partnerships; Social and Collaborative Networks

2016
Book

Win-Win Corporations: The Indian Way of Shaping Successful Strategies

By: Shashank Shah

Why did Ratan Tata decide to pay for all the victims of 26/11 whether injured in the Taj or anywhere else? Why did HDFC’s Aditya Puri insist that employees leave for home by 5:30 p.m.? How did HUL develop a cheaper, better product to beat its competitor, Nirma? What do... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Success

15 Nov 2016
News

Cultivating the Next Generation of Thought Leaders

game-changing ideas, these examples of pathbreaking research emerged from HBS faculty members early on in their careers. Today Porter holds the Bishop William Lawrence University Professorship and Christensen is the Kim B. Clark Professor... View Details

May 2021 (Revised May 2022)
Supplement

Odebrecht's 'Transformation Journey' (B)

By: Lynn S. Paine, Ruth Costas and Pedro Levindo

The case describes the changes in Odebrecht’s board of directors while the company had to file for court-supervised reorganization and cope with an ongoing feud within its founding family, and the new challenges that the Group’s leadership has to face. The changes in... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Misconduct; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Reputation; Mission and Purpose; Business and Government Relations; Engineering; Family Business; Emerging Markets; Construction Industry; Brazil; Latin America